The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-10-28
ALL MEN EDITIONS.

ALL MEN EplToRs.
The Man Who Could Not RIM . News
papss Not Yet Discovered.
heterogeneous Crank" In the Mem
phis Sunday Times: I have never yet
discovered the nan who would 40.
knowledge that he could not run .
newspaper. He might be willing to
acknowledge anything else; he might
confess that he had mistaken his call
ing in becoming q minister; he might
say that he was never built for . law
YER. or that medicine was not his taste;
he might own up that he could not
run a sawmill. q locomotive. . school,
a hotel a steamboat, or . saloon;
but he never would admit that he
could not make a newspaper o howl
ing success.
I discovered this psychological fact
several years ago when q friend Of
mine took q trip to Europe and asked
ma to run his paper for him while
no was away. Now, IL there was any
one thing that ] thought I could do
then, it was to conduct q newspaper;
so | promptly acceded to his request
and wal installed as editor. I deter
mined in the first place I would sound
public sentiment, and find out accu-
rately what my readers wanted. Here
are a few of their opinions.
..Your editorials are too long. Peo-
pie don't read anything longer than fit-
teen lines nowadays. They believe in
paragraphs"
..Why don't you give us some edito-
rialsP Those short comments are not
worth reading. They give us no idea
of a subject"
..You ought to give US more personal
and society news. Surely the nov
men+s of respectable people are OF
much more importance than the records
of the police court"
..Wha n, 4kes you fill your paper
With all this slushp Nobody cares to
read that kind of stuff"
81 can't see why you fill your paper
with so much trivial local news. when
so many important events are taking
place elsewhere"
..For goodness sake give us a rest
on this foreign news. Nobody here
cares what the royal idiots are doingin
Europe"
..Why don't you cater more to the
ladiesp They are the greatest news
paper readers. and it seems to me that
You slight them entirely"
"Look here! You are making q
mistake in publishing a woman's pa
per. If you expect to succeed you will
have to put something stronger in it."
"As SOC al you quit publishing this
Internal base ball news you can renew
my subscription"
.INhat's the matter with your paper
nowp 1t has no base ball news ii.
That's the only department I read, and
if you can't give us than you do.
why. you can stop my paper"
"You could greatly improve your
paper bv publishing art .cles of the best
aumorists occasionally"
81 can't understand why you stuff
your columns with the alleged humor
of Bill Nye, Bob Burdette and the funny
papers. Nobody wants to read that
kind OF truck"
"Well, I sec you r publishing a
red hot prohibition paper now. You
will make q great many enemies by
en.bra ling that folly"
81 hear a good many complaints
among the Pro%hibitlonists of the luke
warmness of the paper. They say that
you have gone back on the cause"
THERE'S thing lacking about
your paper. You are not spicy and
personal enough. People want person.
al;tics nowadays. They want to be
shook up"
"You ought not to indulge SO much
in personalities. Maintain a judicial
tone, and avoid anything like heat or
malice"
eff the paper had more sporting
news init. and fewer religious notes. it
would be more popular"
Religious people complain q great
deal about your filling your paper with
sporting news, and neglecting the
affairs of the church,"
Such was the advice I got. It was
plain that in order to satisfy everybody
I had to double the size Of the paper or
discontinue its publication entirely. I
concluded to adopt the advice in sec
tions. became by turns %rapturously
religious and sublimely skeptical. I
wrote like Il literateur one week; and
like the correspondent of a sporting
Journal the next. I constructed pom
derous articles on the tariff and as an
offset penetrated the giddy of the gid
dies and dished up an editorial on So
ciety. I wrote learnedly about base
ball and developed an easy cow boy
style in my literary critiques. I no
ticed every local plank walk that had
been laid and every watermelon lawn
party that had been given one week;
and the next 1 wrote about the early
determination of Europe. I gave my
views about agriculture in a way that
infatuated the entire granger element.
l wrote up a public official in u judicial
way. and nobody paid any attention to
it. l denounced another official in q
l:rid, r%ed-headed style, and contracted
a serious case of Doctors bill ON ac-
count of it.
When l had been an editor for about
six weeks I became aware of the fact
that if the owner of the paper did not
return soon he would find nothing of
his journal left except the mortgages
on the type and press.